Prosecutors: Letter carrier busted selling marijuana on duty

A veteran mail carrier was ordered held in custody on $100,000 bail Saturday after authorities said he ran a drug business out of his mail truck while working his route in the Near North neighborhood, authorities said.

Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Christopher Baxter held on $100,000 bail Saturday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. He is expected to return to court next week.

Baxter, who lives in Indiana, according to his public defender, was charged with one felony count of manufacture/delivery of cannabis. Baxter said nothing during the hearing as his parents watched from the spectators' gallery.

U.S. Postal Service inspectors conducting surveillance witnessed Baxter, 36, make multiple hand-to-hand drug deals while on duty, according to Cook County Assistant State's Attorney John Chambers. The inspectors alerted Chicago police, who sent officers to interview Baxter in the first block of West Elm Street in the Near North neighborhood.

Baxter admitted to officers, "I have a pound of weed," which authorities recovered inside his postal bag, as well as a digital scale, plastic bags and a heat sealer, Chambers said. The marijuana had an estimated street value of $2,721.

It was unclear what prompted postal authorities to begin their surveillance. A spokeswoman from the U.S. Postal Service did not immediately return calls for comment.